Foldrum is a fast-paced turn-based tactical RPG being developed for iOS and Android. Featuring one-hit-one-kill combat, customizable equipment builds, and a variety of map types and game modes, our goal is to combine intense and engaging combat, a setting inspired by medieval Eastern Europe, and a compelling story-driven campaign.

Foldrum from a story perspective draws extensively from two major factors. The first is Russian medieval history. Though the world in Foldrum is different from ours it is heavily inspired by that era of time and makes parallels to events that took place then. At the soul of Foldrum is the idea of the medieval period from the average persons perspective. Not of a lord or king but of a mercenary or a villager who's voice in history is very often overshadowed.

After The Republic of Madev fell to the principality of Kos, the Kos goverment realized that the war had been far harsher than it hoped. The winter was coming and they were nearly out of food with two countries to feed now. Starvation seems inevitable in the brutal northern winter and major officials have no solution to this crisis but to hold tight to food stores and wait for spring.

In the midst of this crisis is Berislav, a mercenary contracted by a noble house in a neighboring more stable land to steal a Kosian artifact. If he succeeds he can live a carefree life as a noble away from a region that seems in free fall. However this theft does not go even remotely as planned due to the second factor.

Foldrum also has a Lovecraft flair to it in the form of the Foldrum. The artifact that Berislav is tasked to steal is in fact alive and terrifyingly powerful. It can project itself in the world as people and can speak directly with anyone who holds it, but those are some of it's weaker powers. It's most terrifying is it's ability to turn back time with seeming ease. Time for the Foldrum is a malleable form that can twist and change as it sees fit and sadly for poor Berislav, unlike the traditional uncaring Lovecraftian horrors the Foldrum seems to have an interest in playing with Berislav.

Gamplay:

Foldrum takes a unique approach to its gameplay because of the implementation of one major mechanic. One hit one kill. That means if you are hit once in Foldrum and there is no special case you die, and the same goes for the enemy. You are always alone in single player and you must find a way to use your environment, the abilities you have, your weapons and your movement to overcome those odds. Gameplay in Foldrum therefore is fast and brutal. One second you could be decimating enemies and the next you could be dead but at the same time one second you could be cornered and the next victorious. The coin in Foldrum has two sides.

Art:

The art for Foldrum will be done in a pixel graphics style. The actual substance of that style will be a faded feel to the art. Foldrum is not a super happy and fluffy game and deals with serious concepts so the art style will be trying to reflect that in the best way it can, giving the gameplay a grounded feel.

Sound:

The music for this game has been a hot topic for debate among me and the sound team. We really have two potential paths to go in our minds. One is that we will go with more traditional medieval music where we will have a handful of instruments that will score most of the soundtrack. The alternative is to take inspiration from the art and do a more chiptune driven soundtrack with a variety of instruments. I don't think it will end in a either or decision but more than likely a blend of the two. It's just a question of which side gets more of the pie.

Foldrum Update #8

Ok so as I talked about in the video we are on track for completion of the demo. This week I needed to finish the Artificial Intelligence, and that is exactly what I did. There are still a few behavior bugs(not even remotely game breaking) that I won't be able to handle in time but all in all the current AI is very much in line with the final AI for the game's release (hopefully) in August.

Here is the updated chart for this week:

Red = not started

Yellow = in progress

Light Blue = means it's done but needs to be confirmed to work properly

Green = done and has been checked (it will probably be a while before you see this colour since checks will probably be at the end of finishing a segment)

In code I mentioned that there were a variety of things that got done, but I am going to go into more detail here.

Counter Fixed:

The sword counter was giving us some major problems, but I managed to fix the underlying system and it now behaves properly with both enemies and other players. Sword is now finally blue since there are no more obvious problems.

Check Enemy Range:

This new feature that I had been wanting to add for weeks allows the player to check the attack range of enemies and other players by clicking on them. It also allows the player to move by just clicking or touching the player to bring up the movement tiles.

Effects Display:

You may notice the things hanging over the enemies' heads in this gif, they are actually symbols representing the awareness of the enemies. This is one of the changes to the effects display system that was implemented. Before, each effect was displayed by actually changing the sprite of the character; now each character has their own canvas which has the effects' individual symbols display on that.

Hotseat Multiplayer:

So in hotseat multiplayer the rules are similar to the v.s. AI combat. However, as the name suggests, in this mode you can play against another real player in the same room as you by taking turns making moves. We currently have free for all working, as you can see, but we are hoping to get teams up and running as well.

Big Wide World:

This week Faizan was able to get roads and villages into Big Wide World. They generate using Dijkstra's algorithm, and prefers to pass through some terrain types over others. Also I should note that we did not have art for the villages so we used our default temporary tile the fish taco. (gaze at its beauty)

Spear:

Finally I will leave you off with the final weapon profile: the spear. It is a weapon that specializes in giving the player range without completely giving up their close combat capabilities. With this weapon the tactic is generally peck and flee which is very different from many of the close combat weapons that require an aggressive tactic most of the time.

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